Shattered Soul
by Akayla's Pierced Heart
Summary: A young slayer tries to restore the soul of a vampire who killed her family. At the same time Team Angel is still recovering from losing Fred and thinking her soul was destroyed. Fred's soul is in a vampire's body. Will Team Angel accept the new Fred? AU
1. Chapter 1

"Do you really think you will succeed? After all this time, you still think restoring my soul will do you any good?" Jenna laughed as she spoke, her bright blue eyes glittering with amusement. To any warm blooded man Jenna was the picture of perfection. Long wavy blond hair and a perky round face gave her the look of innocence. She looked around 25, but her eyes spoke of her real age. Her petite body was fitted with a clingy dark blue silk top with spaghetti straps, black slacks, and black spiked boots that clicked as she paced the cement floor. Jenna glared at her jailer through the iron bars that surrounded her in the small basement. "Why don't you just kill me and be done with it? That's what Slayers do, right?"

"You would like that wouldn't you." A firm voice spoke from the steps leading out of the basement. There sat a young woman in her mid twenties with her head buried in an old leather bound journal. Straight brown hair stopped just below her chin and hid her pale face as her eyes scanned the pages. "A quick death is too good for you." Jenna laughed again causing the woman on the steps to look up. Sharp green eyes flashed with anger at the smile on Jenna's face. "Once I find this spell you won't laugh anymore. I know my mother put it in here. And I know another witch who's done this spell more than once."

"Please, what makes you think putting my soul back in my body will make me feel guilty?" Jenna's voice heightened a little and the woman on the steps smiled letting her eyes drop back down to the yellow pages of the journal. Jenna heard the pages being turned and stopped pacing. The lack of noise made the woman on the steps look up again briefly.

"Nervous?" Jenna crossed her arms and watched silently as three more pages were turned. It was then that the woman on the steps finally stood. "When your soul returns, you will cry over the lives you have taken. You will beg for my forgiveness for killing my parents and my sister. You will want to help me rid the world of evil creatures like you. And you will thank me for restoring your humanity. And then of course… I'll laugh in your face." As the woman walked towards Jenna she started speaking another language. Her normally green eyes turned black as she spoke.

"No! No please!" Jenna screamed. She leapt at her captor but the bars stopped her.

Meanwhile….

Winifred (Fred) Burkle lay in Wesley's arms feeling a pain she didn't know could exist. It hurt to cry. It hurt to breathe. It hurt to just be. She wished the pain would just stop. She could hear Wesley's voice, but as the pain finally took over she his voice became softer and softer until she could no longer hear it. Then the pain was gone…

Fred opened her eyes and screamed.

"Shut up!" A voice yelled back at her. Fred frantically looked around and saw that she was in some sort of prison cell. It was dark and the lighting was bad but once her eyes adjusted she could see who had just yelled at her. A young woman who looked about her age stood outside of the prison cell glaring at her.

"Who… Who are you?" Fred stuttered.

"Don't play funny Jenna. The spell restores your soul, it doesn't wipe your memory. Though by now I'm sure you wish it had." The woman grinned.

"I'm… My name isn't Jenna… It's Fred." Fred grabbed onto the bars. "Please, my name is Fred…" It was then that Fred realized that her voice had changed. She looked down and saw clothes that were not her own. When she looked down blond hair fell into her face. She began to panic and scream. "I'm Fred! I'm Fred! Please I'm Fred!" She started to beat against the bars. "Please I'm Fred! I can prove it! I can! I'm Fred!" The woman continued to watch her with her arms crossed seeming unimpressed with Fred's outburst. "Please, just call my friends and I can prove who I am!" Tears found their way down Fred's cheeks and the woman finally uncrossed her arms. She opened a book she had been holding and began to read. After a few agonizingly silent minutes she closed the book and looked up.

"Don't go anywhere." She grinned again before turning and heading up the stairs.

As she headed up the stairs Sage couldn't help but feel that it wasn't Jenna's soul that she had just put in Jenna's body. When she entered the kitchen she slammed the basement door shut. Sighing, she fished her cell phone out from under stacks of newspapers piled on her dining table. She flipped it open and began scrolling down until she got to the W's.

Miles away Willow's phone rang. Willow had just been researching something for Buffy when she heard the familiar buzz of her phone. Without looking at the number she pressed Send and put the phone to her ear.

"_Hello?"_

"_Willow, it's Sage Pierce. I have a slight problem."_

"_Okay… What is it?"_

"_Remember that vamp I told you about, Jenna?"_

"_Yeah." Willow paused. "Did the spell not work?"_

"_That depends on your definition of 'work.' It put A soul in her just not HER soul."_

"_Well, that is actually possible. I've never heard of it happening, but if someone who really didn't want to die knew enough about witchcraft to hear or sense your spell… Well, yeah, it's possible. Has this soul said their name?"_

"_Fred. Well, actually Winifred Burkle."_

"_Oh Goddess…" Willow whispered._

"_What?"_

"_I know her. But she died weeks ago in L.A."_

"_I don't think I'm dealing with someone who knows they've been dead for weeks."_

"_Well, yeah, in her mind her death just happened. One minute she was Fred and now… Where is she?"_

_  
"In a jail cell in my basement."_

"_In a what?" Willow shouted causing Sage to pull the phone away form her ear. "You go down there and let her out this instant!"_

"_I can't do that." Sage spoke so calmly it irritated Willow. "Good or bad, she's still a vamp. And if I let her out, what's to say she doesn't attack me?"_

"_I realize the past you have with vampires but you have to know that a vampire with a soul would never just attack without being provoked."_

"_So as long as I'm nice to fangy down there I won't get hurt?"_

"_Basically yes." _

"_Alright. I'll let her out. But you better get over here quick."_

"_I can be there by tonight." _Sage felt disgusted with herself as turned and faced the basement door. She groaned as she opened the door and made her way back down the stairs. Her top lip curved upward as Jenna/Fred came into view.

"Please let me out." Sage tried not to shudder at the sound of her pleading voice. "Please." Sage dug into her pocket and pulled out an old fashioned looking key. She tossed it into the cell and nearly ran back up the stairs. She just couldn't bring herself to look at that body for another second.


	2. Chapter 2

Fred was having a very hard time sitting still in the wooden chair. She stared wide-eyed at her hands laying palm down on the small round wooden table. Using her perriphial vision (which was surprisingly clear and defined) she silently watched her former jailer bustle around the small kitchen. Slowly Fred moved a lock of the silk blond hair out of her face and looked around the room. She had seen shabbier places, but the small cabin had a very lived-in feel to it. That made Fred feel just the tiniest bit better about her predicament. She couldn't help but wonder what Wesley and the others were going to do when they saw her new body. Did Wesley like blondes? Fred's thought bubble suddenly burst open when a black coffee cup was unceremoniously dropped in front her still flat hands. Fred's head popped up and she made eye contact with the other girl just long enough to be glared at before she dropped her eyes to the cup.

"Relax, it's not poison. You need to drink up. The last thing I need is a thirst ravaged vamp."

"Wha… What is it?" Fred touched the handle of the cup with the tip of her finger. The other girl sat across from Fred with a black cup in her own hand.

"Mine's coffee, your's is O negative." Fred's eyes widened in fear. Could she drink blood? "You need it." Her voice went from cynical to serious. "You also need to avoid direct sunlight, and try not to trip as most of my furniture is wood."

Fred cradled the cup in her hands and barely tipped it toward her mouth. After two seconds hesitation she sucked in the liquid. At first she cringed but as the blood hit her tongue she tilted her head back and drank until the cup was empty. Feeling slightly embarrassed she set the cup down quickly.

"Do you need more?" The voice was emotionless.

"No… I'm alright."

"Listen," Fred looked up when she heard how much softer the girl was speaking. "I screwed up. Maybe it's a good thing I did. From what I can tell you didn't deserve to die, or to be brought back as a damn vampire. I know I'm being bitchy but it's hard to look at you and not see the soulless monster who killed my family. I hunted her down and tried to put her soul back in her so she would suffer. I wanted _her_ to suffer. But I got you instead. I'm willing to go on a little faith 'cause Willow vouched for you, but don't expect us to be girlfriends okay." She sighed. "Any questions?"

"What's your name?"

"Sage Pierce."

"Are you a slayer or a witch?"

"A witch."

"How old am I?"

"My mother once told me you were sired during the Civil War. But that's really only a rumor. Only Jenna knew."

"Where are we?"

"In a cabin near Bear Lake. It's north of L.A. You'll have to wait a few hours till Willow gets here. She's taking you home."

"What about you?"

"What about me?" Suddenly the glare was back.

"Don't you get lonely?"

"I don't stay in any place long enough to get lonely, so just don't worry about me." The sarcasm was back too.

"Sorry… I just… I know what it's like to be alone."

"I'm going out. Stay inside and away from the windows. The T.V. works and their's more blood in the fridge. I was saving it for when Jenna…" Sage got up and dumped her coffee in the sink. "I'll be back in an hour or so." As she swept around the table she picked up a leather journal that Fred hadn't noticed before. "Just behave while I'm gone." Fred sat still until she heard a door slam shut followed by a screen door creaking on old hinges.

Five Hours Later

Back at Wolfram and Hart the phone on Angel's desk rang rescuing him from a rather mundane argument with Spike. Both of them looked at the phone and it rang three more times before Angel finally picked it up.

"Yes, this is Angel."

"Hey it's Willow." Spike seemed to perk up at her voice.

"Hi, Will-"

"Listen," she cut him off. "Are you sitting down?" Angel narrowed his eyes at Spike who sat down on the other side of his desk.

"Yes." He tried not to sound as impatient as he felt.

"Ok, I have some pretty big news." Spike rolled his eyes. "I don't really know how to put this delicately but…"

"Just blurt it out love." Spike said loud enough for Willow to hear.

"Fred's back."

"What?" Both vampires were now standing and shouting.

"It's a long story but I'm on my way there now with Fred and a friend. So I need you to sit back and listen so you can explain things to everyone before I get there."

"Now exactly what do you mean by back?" Angel demanded.

"Did I not just say sit back and listen?" Willow sounded annoyed and they could hear someone in the back round laugh. "Okay, you know about the spell to restore and vampire's soul? Well, a friend of mine performed that spell on a vampire and… Well, Fred's soul got put in there instead."

"How do you know it's Fred?" Angel was suspicious, he had been fooled before.

"As far as I can tell it's definitely her, but when we get her there Lorne can read her. Will that satisfy you?"

"Yes, but how can this happen? We thought her soul was destroyed."

"Yeah, well, it would have been if she hadn't had something to hold on to Something that made her want to live so badly that her soul went searching for the nearest body. Fred new enough about magic to know it _**is**_ possible. And when Sage started her chant, Fred's soul could have been drawn to it faster than Jenna's soul. I guess The Powers That Be may have had a hand in it… I honestly don't know. All I do know is that the blonde next to me is most definitely Fred."

"She's a blond now?" Spike muttered.

"Anyway, we are on our way there, so you may want to get everyone up to speed."

"How long?" Angel asked.

"Maybe another hour? Sage drives kinda fast."

"How… How is she?" Angel asked what he and Spike both wanted to know.

"She's adjusting. For her, this all just happened. She was Fred one second and then the next thing she knew… She's a blond with fangs." They heard the laugh again.

"We'll see you in an hour." Angel let the phone drop into place. "Get everyone in here."

"On it." Spike was already half way to the door.

Several minutes later Lorne, Gunn, Wes, Illyria, and Harmony all sat in Angel's office staring at him and Spike.

"So…" Wes tried to find the words. "Fred's alive?" He barely whispered.

"Possibly." Angel couldn't look at him.

"Technically, if this is her she's not alive so to speak."

"Yeah, we get the whole vampire undead thing." Gunn cut him off.

"Look if this is her, we need to be understanding about her… Condition." Angel finally looked at Wes. "For her, none of her feelings towards any of us have changed. What she needs to know that our feelings haven't changed either."

"Are you asking me if I can love Fred as a vampire?" Wes' voice was hard.

"Can you?"

"Just you asking me that means you have no idea how I feel about her."

"Yes, but, can you love Fred as a blond?" Wes glared at Spike. Gunn threw a book at him.


End file.
